Tarek Saba

Exponent (United States)

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Document Type

Co-Authors

Paul D. Boehm

Exponent (United States)

Tissa H. Illangasekare

Colorado School of Mines

Jaana Pietari

Exponent (United States)

Kenichi Soga

University of California, Berkeley

K. Yayoi

Hitachi (Japan)

Frank T. Barranco

Colorado School of Mines

Naoyuki Fujita

National Institute of Technology, Nara College

Linda L. Cook

Exponent (United States)

Walter J. Shields

Exponent (United States)

Masayuki Inoue

University of Yamanashi

Cooperative Institutions

Exponent (United States)

Toyohashi University of Technology

Colorado School of Mines

Bellevue Hospital Center

Hitachi (Japan)

National Institute of Technology, Nara College

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Davis

Nagoya University

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Improving rigor in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon source fingerprinting

Environmental Forensics (2018)

Paul D. Boehm Jaana Pietari Linda L. Cook Tarek Saba

Source identification of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in environmental samples has advanced greatly in the last 20 years and continues to advance. To realize potential benefits and avoid possible pitfalls, however, great care is needed as one applies published diagnostic tools to data sets. This commentary reflects some recent observations, concerns, and recommendations.

Identification

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

10.1080/15275922.2018.1474287

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Citations (23)

Forensic analysis of breakthrough curves in fractured bedrock to reconstruct a past contaminant release event—A case study

Environmental Forensics (2019)

Tarek Saba

This work presents analysis of breakthrough curves collected from monitoring wells located around an impoundment that leaked produced water in fractured bedrock. The analysis demonstrated that fractured bedrock flow could be highly heterogeneous, with produced water impacting some monitoring well, but not others located within the same distance as impacted wells, and within the same general alignment from the leaking impoundment. Breakthrough curves that were collected before and after the impoundment leak event contained information that was used to reconstruct events that led to the leaking of the impoundment. The breakthrough curve analysis methods presented in this work could be used in similar situations where groundwater flow is dominated by unidirectional fracture porosity.

Bedrock

Water well

Breakthrough curve

10.1080/15275922.2019.1657518

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Citations (0)

Lack of data to support a relationship between methane contamination of drinking water wells and hydraulic fracturing

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2011)

Tarek Saba Mark Orzechowski

Many waterbodies across the United States do not meet water quality standards. To help determine where and to what extent improvements should be sought, policymakers must consider the costs of regulations with their monetized values. We ...Scientific knowledge related to quantifying the monetized benefits for landscape-wide water quality improvements does not meet current regulatory and benefit–cost analysis needs in the United States. In this study we addressed this knowledge gap by ...

10.1073/pnas.1108435108

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Citations (54)

Congeners

Elsevier eBooks (2015)

Walter J. Shields Tarek Saba Paul D. Boehm Jaana Pietari

Data set

Sample (material)

10.1016/b978-0-12-404696-2.00010-2

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Citations (7)

Use of natural-gas compositional tracers to investigate gas migration from a gas storage field

Environmental Geosciences (2012)

Tarek Saba Paul D. Boehm

Producers adjacent to a natural-gas storage field claimed that the natural gas they were producing was native gas from the area and not storage gas being pulled from the nearby gas storage field. The objective of this work is to apply a combination of area-specific and generic geochemical fingerprinting techniques to determine the source(s) of the natural gas being produced by third-party producers outside the gas storage field and to determine the extent of storage gas migration beyond geologic faults that lie between the production area and the gas storage field. An extensive set of natural-gas samples from the storage field, observation wells around the field, and third-party wells was analyzed for gas hydrocarbon and nonhydrocarbon compositions, as well as stable carbon isotopic compositions of methane and ethane. Gas chemical compositional data, including concentrations of the natural native gas tracer, helium, and ethane carbon isotope, were used to establish the unique fingerprints of native gas and storage gases (end-member sources) and to compare those end-member-source fingerprints to those of natural gas in the third-party wells. The analysis determined that gas in both the observation wells and third-party wells was, in fact, storage gas.

Natural gas field

Natural gas storage

Gas composition

Natural-gas processing

10.1306/eg.12291111011

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Citations (3)

Quantitative Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB) Congener and Homologue Profile Comparisons

Environmental Forensics (2011)

Tarek Saba Paul D. Boehm

A case study is presented of two sites considered to be potential polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) sources to a waterway that were sampled with site source and waterway sediment samples analyzed for PCB congeners using Method 1668A. Site 1 historical activities included storage and burning of spent PCB-containing transformer fluids. Site 2 contained paved areas that historically used PCB-containing concrete joint material. Several approaches to congener profile comparisons were used to compare the potential source samples presented in this work with sediment samples collected from three cores in the waterway. In addition to qualitative (visual) comparisons, other methods included principal component analysis, the coefficient of determination R2 metric, the cosine theta metric, and homologue double ratio analysis. Collectively, these methods were able to quantitatively determine the degree of similarity between the potential sources and the samples from the three waterway cores and identify the predominant source of contamination.

Congener

Polychlorinated biphenyl

Biphenyl

10.1080/15275922.2011.572950

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Citations (8)

Tracking polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) congener patterns in Newark Bay surface sediment using principal component analysis (PCA) and positive matrix factorization (PMF)

Journal of Hazardous Materials (2013)

Tarek Saba Steave H. Su

Congener

10.1016/j.jhazmat.2013.05.046

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Citations (44)

Determination of the applicability of CERCLA's petroleum exclusion at contaminated sites – focus on metals

Environmental Forensics (2017)

Tarek Saba Paul D. Boehm

Areas impacted by petroleum refining and handling operations may become subject to CERCLA enforcement. Because of CERCLA's petroleum exclusion clause, determining whether contamination in a CERCLA Site originated from petroleum products or hazardous wastes becomes important. Because certain metals are typically enriched in wastes relative to petroleum products and background soils, knowledge of metal contents in these potential end member metal sources is an important step towards contaminant source identification in soils and sediments. In LNAPL plumes, metal content, particularly lead, may be claimed to be the result of wastes mishandling and not due only to the presence of leaded gasoline in the plume. Analysis of the percent gasoline in the plume and accounting for weathering are steps to determining whether the lead content in an LNAPL plume is within the historical lead concentration ranges in gasolines. In addition to metals analyses, understanding of operational parameters such as the history of petroleum refining and handling operations, leaks, spills, and cleanup activities are needed for successful conclusion of the applicability of the petroleum exclusion.

Petroleum product

Refining (metallurgy)

10.1080/15275922.2017.1408161

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Citations (0)

Intermediate-scale modeling to investigate up-scaling issues related to mass transfer from non-aqueous phase waste chemicals in heterogeneous aquifers

Ground Water (2020)

Tissa H. Illangasekare Tarek Saba

Understanding and characterization of nonaqueous phase liquid (NAPL) behavior at laboratory scale do not lend in a straightforward manner to the description of the processes in the field. Physical modeling using intermediate-scale tanks provides a cost-effective alternative to collect accurate data to up-scale processes from laboratory to the field. Insights and experiences gained in designing experiments to study dissolution of entrapped NAPLs are presented.

10.1201/9781003078593-12

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Congener-based analysis of the weathering of PCB Aroclor 1242 in paper mill sludge

Chemosphere (2010)

Tarek Saba Paul D. Boehm

Congener

Volatilisation

10.1016/j.chemosphere.2010.12.011

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Citations (11)